US may impose new sanctions on Russia if no progress on peace deal: Rubio

ISTANBUL

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington is awaiting steps from Russia for peace in the Ukraine conflict, with new sanctions possible if Moscow fails to show genuine interest in negotiations.

“It’s our understanding that the Russians are going to write up terms for what they would require in order to reach a ceasefire that then would allow broader negotiations,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“We await those terms, and then I’ll have a much better understanding about Mr. Putin’s calculation once we see what those terms look like,” he said.

Asked about potential new sanctions, Rubio said if “it is clear that the Russians are not interested in a peace deal, and they just want to keep fighting a war, it may very well come to that point.”

He noted the administration has already issued warnings to Moscow of “what would happen if there was no progress made.”

However, he stressed that US President Donald Trump’s current approach is to avoid such moves. “The president believes that right now, if you start threatening sanctions, the Russians will stop talking,” Rubio said.

He said Trump is “very committed” to ending the war, adding that Trump “wants to preserve as long as he possibly can, the opportunity to influence both sides towards peace.”

On Friday, the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul hosted high-level peace talks between Russia and Ukraine facilitated by Türkiye, where both sides agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each and continue with negotiations for a truce.

On Monday, Trump said his telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin “went very well,” and that Moscow and Kyiv are slated to “immediately” begin negotiations over a ceasefire.

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